Broilers or grills for cooking food items have been known to be used in combination with a gas burner or electrical heating plate, examples of which can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 389,602 (Sankley), 2,117,749 (Studer) and 5,467,691 (Koziol), to impress stripped patterns on the cooked food. Such appliances employ high temperatures to heat the grill and the food thereon. As a result, the cooktop becomes hot and food which spills between the respective grates burns and chars, making it more difficult to clean.
In addition thereto, conventional methods employing gas and electrical burners provide an inefficient means for heating the grill or broiler. During operation, an amount of heat transferred from the burner to the grill is lost to the surrounding environment, resulting in an inefficient cooking system. Accordingly, there is a desire to provide a more efficient broiler that is easy to clean and safer to use.
The present invention has developed one approach to remedy the above problem, i.e., induction heating. The concept of employing induction heating to cook food on a flat surface is generally known in the art. However, conventional cool-top induction surface cooking units used in practice are directed to heating conventional pots and pans, both magnetic and non-magnetic. Such cooking units are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,761,667 (Walden), 3,775,577 (Peter, Jr.), 3,781,505 (Steigerwald), 3,932,801 (Peter, Jr.), and 4,010,342 (Austin). There has yet to be provided an induction cooking unit for broiling food.
The present invention has developed a broiler wherein heatable grates are placed on top of the cool-top induction surface to provide for the broiling or grilling of food products, while avoiding burning or charring of food which falls between the grates and contacts the cool-top induction surface.
The present invention provides a cooking apparatus for broiling foods using induction heating techniques. It also provides a rapid, clean, safe and efficient broiler. Finally, the present invention provides a broiling surface configured to increase significantly the capture of induction energy.